".......Suspected Iranian purchasing agents have been using front companies registered on the politically divided Mediterranean island to buy precision Western technology that can be used in designing and building atom bombs, according to reports seen by European intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.
The front companies, some based in Northern Cyprus, a Turkish-run enclave notorious for lax financial regulation, have been ordering equipment and computer software whose capabilities are so unusual and sophisticated that atomic weapons development is among their few known applications. The "dual-use" technology, manufactured by tiny specialized engineering companies in countries such as Germany and Switzerland, does have some potential civilian applications, which is why intelligence officials say that evidence of Iranian efforts to purchase such items doesn't constitute 100 percent proof that Tehran is currently trying to build a bomb....
US counterproliferation officials said that any proposed revisions in the 2007 US NIE on Iran's nukes would be subjected to rigorous review and testing inside the intelligence community before any report is issued. If a revised or updated NIE is released it is quite possible that no unclassified version will ever be released. AWall Street Journal report about possible revisions in the 2007 NIE said that the National Security Council and Vice President Joe Biden's office had expressed interest in an updated NIE, but that it could take "months" to produce. Counter-proliferation officials told NEWSWEEK that at a minimum such a report probably would not be ready for at least two months."
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